My personal philosophy about antibiotics is that one should only take them if they are necessary and have a prescription from a doctor. Antibiotics are very useful and we are very lucky for their discovery but they can also have very negative effects on our bodies if we are not careful with how we use them. I personally believe that one should not use antibiotics unless there are no other options, such as taking probiotics or other types of medications. If you are seriously sick or it is an urgent situation then, by all means, someone should use them to get better. Antibiotics should not be used in a case where someone has a sore throat and feels like it could potentially turn into strep throat. Instead of rushing to take something, you should be patient and wait to see if it isn’t just a simple cold. I also believe that you should take the full dose of medication that is prescribed to you to fully rid your body of the bacterial infection so that it doesn’t come back in a strong amount.
Thankfully in my life, I haven’t had to take a ton of antibiotics but I had a really stressful and bad experience with them recently. Last fall I was very sick and I kept going to the local Urgent Care to try and figure out what was going on. After each visit, they kept prescribing me a medication for strep throat, it wasn’t until a month and a half later did we find out that I actually had mono. This is why I think it is very important to not take medication unless you are 100% sure that you know what you are treating. It turns out that after each antibiotic (and steroid prescribed for my severe sore throat) my body was having a terrible reaction, which made the experience much worse.
